The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration in a Thursday ruling that will have wide-ranging consequences for asylum seekers crossing the U.S.–Mexico border. The ruling makes it easier for the Trump administration to quickly deport asylum seekers without letting them appeal their case to a judge.
The justices voted 7-2 to overturn a lower court’s decision that went against the Trump administration, blocking court challenges to expedited removal proceedings. Liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer joining their more conservative colleagues.
Lee Gelernt, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who argued the case in the Supreme Court, said the decision could impact tens of thousands of people at the border who will not be able to seek judicial review of their decisions. “Today’s decision handcuffs the Judiciary’s ability to perform its constitutional duty to safeguard individual liberty,” wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor in dissent.
The case was centered on Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam, member of Sri Lanka’s Tamil ethnic minority, who said he was fleeing persecution due his ethnicity. He was detained by Border Patrol 25 yards north of the border, which meant he could be placed in expedited removal, a procedure which gives immigrants less of a right to appeal their cases. The Trump administration has since expanded that policy from having effect within 100 miles of the border to nationwide. The Associated Press, The New York Times
USCIS Faces Furloughs
U.S. Customs and Immigration Services is preparing to furlough 13,400 employees, more than half of its workforce, beginning Aug. 3, unless Congress approves additional funding for the agency. It had notified Congress that it is a fee-funded agency, and that fees had dried up during the coronavirus pandemic. CNN
ALMO Faces Critics, Army Staying on the Border
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Thursday that he plans to meet with Trump as soon as July 4th. He faced swift backlash for the decision as critics warned that he could be embarrassed or used as a tool to boost Trump’s Hispanic support. The two have struck up an unlikely partnership with Mexico enforcing a number of Trump’s immigration measures south of the border. Dallas NewsThe Pentagon will officially keep as many as 4,000 troops at the US-Mexico border in October despite the number of people crossing the border falling dramatically during the coronavirus pandemic. Vox
